Sporting legends Ang Peng Siong, Lim Tong Hai appear in film about Farrer Park, which has no dialogue

SINGAPORE — The hotly debated Farrer Park redevelopment has proved to be a rich subject for a young local filmmaker who has depicted how an Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) planner helped preserve iconic parts of Singapore sporting history.

When the URA announced plans in early 2018 to transform Farrer Park fields into a residential area, there was a public outcry. A petition was launched to preserve the Singapore Amateur Boxing Association’s boxing stadium and the iconic Farrer Park Swimming Pool.

The residents’ fears were allayed in March this year when the URA unveiled its draft master plan which showed that the pool and boxing gym would be retained and incorporated into the housing development.

As part of Public Service Week, running from July 15 to 21, director and entrepreneur Mr Ray Pang, 34, has made a film with no dialogue, with special appearances from former national football player Lim Tong Hai, swimming legend Ang Peng Siong and boxing coach Thangavelu Balasundram.

His film “PS Farrer Park” was based on Ms Stephanie Wee, 28, executive planner, physical planning (central east) department at URA, who played a role in working with the local community in preserving the sporting venues.

Boxing coach Thangavelu Balasundram puts an actor through her paces at the old boxing stadium in Farrer Park during the film production. Photo: Splash Productions

Mr Pang told TODAY at the media preview on Wednesday (July 17): “For people who understand and are aware of Farrer Park’s rich history, definitely this film will tug a few strings.”

He added: “From an outsider, it (Farrer Park) has become personal for me. Boxing coach Bala was very emotional about leaving the gym and when we went back for the actual shoot, he became even more emotional. He said ‘I miss this place so much’.”

Mr Pang’s film is one of four short films series titled PS, a collaboration between Splash Productions and the Ministry of Communications and Information.

The other three films — all about five minutes long — featured a research officer from the Ministry of Manpower, an officer from the National Environment Agency and a youth guidance officer from Singapore Girls’ Home and are based on real life.

Mr Pang’s film has one striking characteristic — there is no dialogue, or any spoken words.

He said: “I wanted to use a very different approach in terms of visual and sounds to express the essence of the film. Nowadays it is not about what you say but how you make someone feel that’s important. I wanted the film to be very organic, almost simple, stripped down to just visuals and sound.”

Mr Pang went to the extent of finding out the specific model of an airplane, the Vickers Vimy bi-plane, which was the first aircraft to land in Singapore back in 1919 on the old Race Course, which is now Farrer Park. He incorporated the sound of the aircraft in the film.

Ms Wee, who is played by an actor in the film, was intrigued by Mr Pang’s approach.

“It was quite interesting how he (Mr Pang) told my story and showed it from the eyes of not just the planner but also from the eyes of the different stakeholders like the sportsmen. It was a mirroring effect where the urban planner understands them but yet they understand where we are coming from, that there are a lot of challenges and trade-offs, that as a planner, we face.”

But she added that the film “reinforces the importance of engagement”.

She said: “Everybody has a different story to tell and everyone has a different memory and experience. As a planner, you cannot discount any of that and rather it’s how do we bring all these stories together and try to retain that within future plans — whether it’s keeping some of the spatial elements or bringing it back in a softer way like having storyboards and heritage markers or how we plan for future infrastructure to replicate some of the history of the site.”

Mr Pang said that he hopes the film will set people thinking.

He said: “The last boxing match in the gym actually sparked journalists to talk about the place and it snowballed and got more attention. It’s a pity that coach Bala left the place because they had to vacate the whole place. So I hope that they can return because it is really the home of boxers.”

The films can be viewed on psshortfilms.sg or through gov.sg's YouTube page.